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Whiteblock into a 240 - Engine Management?

Chuck W

Active member
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Location
Indpls, IN
As I've committed to swapping a whiteblock 5-cyl into my 240, I'm left with trying to decide what ECU to use for the project.

The shortlist of possibles are:
-MS3
-MaxxECU
-Flashable M4.4 Motronic

I'm intending to do COP and utilize the ExVVT set-up on the engine I have.
I've messed with older MS stuff on a couple of projects and have begin to dabble in the M4.4 tuning on our 850's. I'm no expert though.

Are either of the non-OE ECUs a better choice for the 5-cyl? Been starting to dig through documentation on them, but haven't been swayed one way or the other.

Trying to keep costs reasonable, but I understand that this will most likely be one of the more pricey components of the project.

Thoughts?
 
Everybody swears by the MaxxECU stuff for the white blocks.

However, people are making damn good power with the help of Aaron at VAST. The nice thing about a tuned 4.4 ECU is that you don't have to do any of the warm up ****.
 
However, people are making damn good power with the help of Aaron at VAST. The nice thing about a tuned 4.4 ECU is that you don't have to do any of the warm up ****.

Yeah, I recently got stuff set-up to be able to flash/tune the M4.4 stuff, and have messed around with things a little bit, and not having to deal with the fiddly bits would be nice. The learning curve on tuning that set-up is a bit steeper, though.
 
Yeah, I recently got stuff set-up to be able to flash/tune the M4.4 stuff, and have messed around with things a little bit, and not having to deal with the fiddly bits would be nice. The learning curve on tuning that set-up is a bit steeper, though.

Just have Aaron tune it for you?
 
The only thing that is turning me away from using the M4.4 ECUs I have is the fact that they are 20-year-old electronics.

I did more digging, and MS doesn't support e-throttle. At least not "officially".
 
I've had a few different ecu's on my whiteblock swapped 240. Started with a megasquirt and moved on to a few different flavors of Link G4+. Right now I'm running a G4+ Extreme and I'm fairly happy with it. My turbo+ITB setup is kinda quirky and there are a few things I wish it would do better but my only option for improvement at this stage is a Motec or a Life Racing ($$$$) so it'll stay on the car for now.

At the end of the day I think it's basically a toss-up between Link, MS3, and MaxxECU. They are pretty competitive on price, features, and flexibility. You'll be happy with any of them to be honest. I'm personally not a big fan of MS3, mostly due to the lack of E-throttle support.
 
Thanks for the input, guys.

I think I'm leaning towards the MaxxECU set-up, as I'm kind of liking the option to do the e-throttle.
 
I guess staying on the e-throttle discussion.

I've seen a couple builds using MaxxECU that are using the throttle body from a P2 S60/V70 (0-5V signal with a PWM back-up). I didn't see much on the pedals, but I'm imagining some hybrid of the 240 and P2 set-up.
 
Here's a picture of the setup I'm running mocked up on the bench.



It's an E-class benz pedal position sensor made to interface with a cable. The sensor has two 0-5v outputs that are compatible with pretty much any ECU. Just mounted it underneath the brake master and joined it to the stock throttle cable. Way easier than digging around under the dash.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mercedes-accelerator-pedal-sensor-0125423317

I bought it used on ebay with a bracket, stump of throttle cable, and a cut harness for something like $65.
 
Here's a picture of the setup I'm running mocked up on the bench.


It's an E-class benz pedal position sensor made to interface with a cable. The sensor has two 0-5v outputs that are compatible with pretty much any ECU. Just mounted it underneath the brake master and joined it to the stock throttle cable. Way easier than digging around under the dash.


I bought it used on ebay with a bracket, stump of throttle cable, and a cut harness for something like $65.

Interesting.
I'll be swapping the pedal assy anyway, seeing as the car is originally a manual, so I'll be mucking about under the dash with mods for the hydro clutch set-up, so it might not be too terrible to make any changes to accommodate a pedal sensor. This would save one bit of mods, I suppose.
 
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